Playing hurt routine for Dee

USD shooting guard has played entire season with tendinitis in left knee

Sport Shorts- Johnny Dee

Pacific Ridge is a 7th through 12th grade private school in Carlsbad, enrollment: 504. On Tuesday morning, the boys basketball team sat in the Jenny Craig Pavilion stands, watching USD practice.

Johnny Dee was fed a pass in the corner, lined up, bent his knees and let loose a three-pointer. The net rippled.

“Does he ever miss?” said one of the high school players.

Dee is best known for his pure, velvety-as-a-Southern-drawl shooting stroke. At 17.1 points per game, the junior from Rancho Buena Vista High is leading the Toreros in scoring for the third season.

But this season, Dee’s most valuable attribute might be his mental and physical toughness. The 6-foot guard has played the entire campaign while dealing with tendinitis in his left knee.

After scoring 26 points in the Toreros’ 59-56 loss at Gonzaga, Dee barely slept that night. Initially the next morning, he couldn’t walk. He told his mother he didn’t think he’d be able to play the next day at Portland.

Dee started against the Pilots, played 33 minutes and scored 21 points in USD’s 65-63 victory.

“I think a lot of his toughness is mental,” said USD coach Bill Grier. “Physical toughness is one thing. Pure toughness is right between the ears.”

Dee traces the injury back to September or October when he took a knee to his right thigh while practicing. Lifting weights and executing squats a day or two later, Dee thinks he favored his right leg and soon, tendinitis formed in his left knee.

“I’m trying not to allow it to affect me, to play through it,” Dee said.

But at times, Dee is obviously hobbling, dragging his left leg down the floor.

“He looks like a pirate with a wooden leg,” joked one member of the team.

USD head athletic trainer Carolyn Greer said that patella tendinitis most often forms at the bottom of the kneecap. Dee, though, is suffering pain in the upper, outside part of the kneecap.

The injury most impacts his lateral quickness. Dee is already undersized as a shooting guard and defense never has been his calling card. Feeling sharp pain on the outside of his knee makes defending more physical guards even more challenging. When driving to the basket, players typically take off on the foot opposite their shooting hand. Favoring the injury, Dee sometimes elevates off his right foot.

“He had made a big jump defensively,” Grier said. “He studied film. He worked on his lateral quickness in the offseason. For a while he was seeing the fruits of his labor.

“Now he’s just dragging that thing around. He’s not where he would be (defensively) if he were healthy the whole year.”

USD regularly practices at 8:30 a.m. Dee ices his knee and receives electro-stimulation before practices and games, plus more ice after workouts and games. He wears tights in practice and games to keep his muscles warm and loose.

Regarding ice treatments when he’s barely awake, Dee said, “It’s not the most exciting way to start your day.”

Against Pacific two weeks ago Dee took a knee directly on the spot where the tendinitis is most painful and limped off the court.

“The rest of the game, I wasn’t able to run on it,” he said. “That’s the first time I felt I affected the team negatively.”

He played 36 minutes, scored 17 points and hit 5 of 7 three-pointers.

Said Grier, “He’s a really, really tough young man.”

Toreros vs. Pacific

Saturday: 7 p.m., Alex G. Spanos Center

On the air: TWCSN, TheW.tv; 1700-AM

Records: USD is 13-14 (4-10); Pacific is 14-10, 5-8.

Series: Pacific leads 6-4.

Toreros update: It will be interesting to see how point guard Christopher Anderson plays. Anderson took only one shot in USD’s 69-57 loss at Saint Mary’s on Thursday. He missed a 3-pointer and failed to score for the first time this season. USD needs his offense. The Toreros are 11-5 when the 5-7 guard scores 10 or more points, 2-9 when he doesn’t.

Pacific update: The Tigers started USD on its current, season-long, four-game losing streak, shocking the Toreros 84-67. … UOP’s on a roll, winning three of its last four. … The Tigers have scored 82 or more points in four of their last five games.